Mathieu van der Poel proved once again why he’s one of the hottest properties in world cycling by timing his effort to perfection to win the penultimate stage of Tirreno-Adriatico.

The Dutch champion had been part of a five-man group that had chased lone attacker Matteo Fabbro down in the closing stages. With around 200m to go on the short, sharp climb to the summit, van der Poel kicked, bridged the gap on his own, and then surged past the BORA-hansgrohe rider as he powered his way towards the line.

The Alpecin – Fenix man wrapped up his victory with a four-second cushion, with EF Education First Pro Cycling’s Ruben Guerreiro pipping the luckless Fabbro to second place.

Simon Yates (Mitchelton-SCOTT) finished the stage a further six seconds back in a fractured peloton meaning he will take a 16-second advantage over Rafal Majka (BORA-hansgrohe) into the concluding time trial.

Speaking immediately after the stage, van der Poel said: “It was a really difficult stage. The racing was on from the beginning and it never stopped. It wasn’t the plan for me to go in the breakaway but I felt it was a strong group so I wanted to try.

“The laps at the end were hard with steep climbs, so I’m amazed to have finished it off on such a hard course. There are a lot of really good riders preparing for the Giro here so I’m really happy to take a second stage victory in as many days for the team.”

Here’s a recap of some of the standout rider data recorded from the race: